Gatwick airport announces highest ever number of passengers in 2014 – 38.1 million

Date added: January 12, 2015

Gatwick has announced its highest ever number of air passengers, in 2014. There were 38.1 million passengers, which is up + 7.6% compared to 2013. Gatwick had 256,350 Air Transport Movements (flights) in 2013, which was up by 4% compared to 2013. Their air cargo was down by 8.6% compared to 2013, at 88,737 tonnes. The number of passengers at Gatwick has grown steadily since 2010, and overtook the previous peak from 2007 35,165,000 in 2013. The number of flights is still slightly below its peak level in 2007, when there were around 259,000. Gatwick said the growth was driven across a range of markets, and of course, it took the opportunity to make another plug for its 2nd runway. There were approximately 149 passengers, on average, on planes using Gatwick,compared with about 156 at Heathrow. By contrast, in 2011 there were about 134 passengers, on average, per plane using Gatwick. So along with Heathrow, there is a slow increase in the size of planes, and/or the load factor – to be expected when the majority of flights are low-cost. Gatwick says it now has more long haul flights, and passengers travelling to Dubai in 2014 increased by 8.3% compared to 2013.
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Heathrow and Gatwick report record passenger numbers in 2014

12.1.2015 (BBC)

The UK’s two largest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, have both reported record passenger numbers for last year.

Gatwick CFO: “Airport expansion should be for the many not the few – our broad range of growth underlines that Gatwick is the obvious solution if we want all passengers and all types of travel to benefit”

Performance summary – Table shows traffic figures for 2014 (left columns) & monthly traffic figures for December 2014 (right columns). Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi-sector flights

Annual Total

Month

Jan-14 toDec-14

Jan-13 toDec-13

Growth

Growth

(%)

Dec-14

Dec-13

(%)

Total terminal passengers (000s)

38,122.8

35,441.7

7.6%

2,581.7

2,389.8

8.0%

Market Analysis:

UK + Channel Islands

3,657.6

3,777.0

(3.2)%

269.2

286.5

(6.0)%

Ireland

1,284.0

1,267.0

1.3%

102.4

105.0

(2.5)%

European scheduled

21,997.5

19,649.1

12.0%

1,468.5

1,317.9

11.4%

European charter

3,802.2

4,026.5

(5.6)%

149.1

153.8

(3.1)%

North Atlantic

1,694.0

1,648.4

2.8%

103.8

90.6

14.6%

Other long haul

5,687.5

5,073.8

12.1%

488.7

436.0

12.1%

Air transport movements

256,350

246,499

4.0%

18,119

17,633

2.8%

Cargo (metric tonnes)

88,737

96,939

(8.5)%

7,344

7,428

(1.1)%

Gatwick recorded its busiest ever year in 2014 with 38.1 million passengers – a 7.6% increase. The growth was driven across a range of markets, underlining Gatwick’s case for expansion as the airport that would benefit the widest range of passengers, travel and airline models.

Long haul traffic played a key role in the growth, including the launch of ground-breaking low-cost long-haul flights to New York and Los Angeles which helped drive a 2.8% growth in flights to North America.

Traffic to other long haul destinations in 2014 saw an increase of 12.1%. Travel to Dubai alone rose 8.3%, while Gatwick’s links to emerging markets were boosted with new routes such as Garuda Indonesia’s new services to Jakarta and new easyJet routes to Tel Aviv.

Around 1 in 5 passengers now travel through Gatwick on business and the airport now serves 46 of the 50 top business destinations in Europe. Among the fastest growing European destinations from Gatwick in 2014 were the business centres of Copenhagen (up 23.9%) along with Paris and Brussels which were boosted by the launch of new services in 2014.

The record-breaking growth in 2014 was completed by over 2.5 million passengers travelling through the airport in December – an 8% increase on last year. The December figures also mark 22 consecutive months of growth at Gatwick.

Nick Dunn, Chief Financial Officer at London Gatwick, said: “Gatwick’s record-breaking figures show an airport serving the widest range of travel and airline models – exactly what is needed from the decision about the UK’s next runway.

“Airport expansion should be for the many not the few, and our broad range of growth underlines that Gatwick is the obvious solution if we want all passengers and all types of travel to benefit.

“Expand Heathrow and we take a backwards step towards higher fares, less choice and the monopolies of the past. Only Gatwick can offer the win-win solution of a bigger Gatwick, a better Heathrow and airports throughout the UK benefitting from greater competition.”